HOW DO WE TERRAFORM MARS?
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Now, with a bolstered private space sector and a new space race with dozens of new international participants, the #Mars dream looms closer and closer. While we are getting nearer to reaching the surface, colonizing Mars is still proving elusive.
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Mars is considered a prime candidate for human settlement given similarities in size, inclination, structure, composition, and even presence of water. And so, transforming Mars’ terrain is now priority one.
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To understand how we’d #terraform Mars, the first step is understanding the challenges. Living on Mars poses a number of obstacles: an extremely thin and unbreathable #atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide (96%), low atmospheric pressure (0.4-0.87 kPa), cold temperatures (averaging -63°C), and radiation exposure (0.67 mSV/day) due it’s lost atmosphere, stripped away by stellar winds. Factoring in a still inner dynamo, Mars also lacks the heartbeat that creates its own #magnetosphere .
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Thus, #colonization begins with warming the #planet , thickening the atmosphere, and altering the composition of said atmosphere, which will be discussed in further details of later posts.
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To quote the late and great Stephen Hawking: “If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before. We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth.”
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#colonizeMars#RedPlanet#innerdynamo#radiationexposure#dreamingofMars#yinadreamsofspace#stellarwinds#StephenHawking